Our 3 year-old watched Dora and Diego almost every day from about 1 1/2 to just turning 3. It became somewhat of an obsession and he always wanted to watch another show. On the other hand, my wife and I rarely watched shows or movies, and only had Netflix (no cable) in the house. We finally decided to ditch the TV all together, and 6 months later, it is going fantastic! Our son was upset for a few days after we got rid of it, but now it is a pleasure to watch him play with real things.
Anyways, not passing judgement on any parents and we'll probably get a TV again some day. But it's been pretty awesome!
Nice tip! I only learned about refrigerating avocados recently and it's awesome to not have to consume a whole bag of avocados within a couple of days :) I'll definitely try the avocado in water trick.
I take serious issue with this: "Placing a ripe, soft avocado in a refrigerator will extend its life by two days, give or take." I've actually found that it can extend the life of an avocado for a week or more, depending on the avocado and when it is placed in the fridge :)
If you re-wrote company profits with all the subsidies, tax breaks, etc, factored in, you would see a much different profit landscape across the board.
I was interested in getting an arduino for a while but wasn't sure what to do with it and was busy with other software projects. Recently, I got a pi at PyCon for free, then shortly after we bought some chicks for raising chickens for eggs. I put the two together and am building out a monitoring system for them, that includes a web cam, temperature sensor and remotely controlled brooder light. I like to call it a chicken pi :)
But, I think it just takes one small project to get you started. I've noticed that this has a snowball effect as I start reading more and talking to more people about electronics and automation. Lots of fun! It's all about hacking, learning and having a good time!
Fascinating - I worked on the original database application for tracking CAFE practices in the field as part of an internship program with Conservation International. We worked with a coffee co-op and field office in Chiapas, Mexico. It was entirely offline, based on Access, which was a strange journey for a developer mostly doing work on the web.
I love this project and the idea of linking together the sensors on so many devices. I wonder if something similar could be used for earthquake detection using motion sensors in the phone, since many phone rest on flat surfaces at least part of the day (most of the day for me). It could be activated when phones are resting on a flat surface with no movement.
I used to be vegetarian and am eating modified paleo which means red meat and eggs (among other things, including lots of veggies, very little sugar and alcohol, fish, etc). Long-term health consequences worry me a bit but it seems like there is so much that we really don't understand about diet.
This is my feeling exactly. People seem to over analyze various approaches to fitness and diet to the point that it becomes un-productive. There is not a magic bullet workout or diet - in fact lots of different workouts and diets will have a positive effect if you stick with them. We are so obsessed with micro-optimizing that we miss the big picture.
I would add some general principles with regards to diet that could benefit most people. Reducing or eliminating processed foods and sugar, for example, can benefit anybody. Maintaining a reasonable proportion of fats, protein and carbohydrates is another.
This is great insight. We paired 3 hours per day for about a year at the company where I work for before realizing that a more flexible approach to pairing was needed. These days we use it as a tool for on-boarding new developers and collaborated on hard problems, but there are no minimum requirements of time. Keeps everybody happy and still encourages working together!
I first read about nootropic drugs 15 or so years ago when I picked up a small book on the topic. Pricetam seemed like an effective drug with few side effects, and it could be bought over-the-counter in Mexico. I was living in San Diego, so I picked some up at a pharmacy and gave them a try. I did notice a significant impact on my concentration and mental clarity when taking the dosage recommended in the book. I think I finished off the bottle of a few months but never really thought about trying to get more. I think it was mostly because of not really knowing the side effects and not wanting to alter by body's natural chemistry too significantly.
Absolutely agree with you. I went on a wild adventure through my 20s, spending time in Alaska, working as a baker, managing an organic farm for several years - living for the most part from the seat of my pants just following what felt right.
I'm sure I sacrificed some aspects of a 'career' because of it but I had an incredible life experience. And when I turned 30 I met the love of my life, finally committed full time to developing software (after a number of fits and starts) and never looked back.
I never spend a day feeling like I 'missed out on something'. Rather, I'm really enjoying my life where it is at right now, cool career, wonderful wife and 2 1/2 year old son.
I do kind of look forward to when my son gets a little older though so I can get a van and take him on some wild adventures ;)
Salt Lake City and San Diego: PHP/Python(/Ruby) software developers. Work with a fantastic team of motivated developers, great benefits, fun environment.
We have a couple long-term applications that are developer in PHP w/ Zend Framework, a smaller application in Ruby, and are planning new development in Python/Django.
Come join us as we grow a new office in Salt Lake City and expand our existing one in San Diego.
I lived in my van for about 6 months after I graduated from college in Portland, OR. I spent part of that time up in Alaska, working in the fisheries (unloading fish from boats with a great group of guys) and the rest of my time in Portland trying to find places to park overnight in the city and trying to get back to a more stable life.
There were good things and bad things. It definitely simplified my possessions and when I was in Alaska I could basically park my van anywhere overnight. But when I got back to Portland, it was a lot harder to find places to park where I wouldn't get harassed.
I used my college (as an alum) gym showers and spent time in parks. This was 1996 so I wasn't too worried about internet connectivity and there definitely weren't any free wifi hotspots ;)
I've had this exact same experience. On a somewhat related note, there may be 'pressure points' that occur in different sitting positions that may cause reduced blood-flow to the wrists, hands and fingers. I experience some RSI in my ring and pinky fingers for over a year and became very concerned that it would get worse. After partially alleviating the problems with a Kinesis Advantage keyboard, I actually discovered that the majority of the issues came from resting my elbows on my elbow rests throughout the day. This was putting pressure on the ulnar nerve and causing the issues in my ring and pinky fingers. It took me over a year to discover this, but when I did the symptoms rapidly went away. I also found that side-sleeping on my arm was doing a similar thing.
A friend of mine mentioned similar issues that resulted from pressure on the palms of the hands during long periods of typing (he's an editor for a magazine).
I was a little concerned at first with my dog, running long distances, but we worked up from 15 or so miles per week to 50, and he seemed fine with it. But I was running in the early morning at the coolest time of day, so I'm sure that helped him.
My 2 1/2 year old is in a Montessori toddler program in Salt Lake City and the school is fantastic. At that age, kids are encouraged to work independently and learn at their own pace. Their 'toys' are what they call 'works' and are designed for learning. He's happy to go to 'school' every day, and I feel great having him there. We were fortunate to find a very high quality Montessori school for him.
I trained for a 50k with my dog (pit/boxer mix) and routinely ran 20+ miles with him. I'm fairly certain that he could have run much farther than me, judging by his vs my energy level at the end of the run. That was in West Virginia summer, too, where it is humid and warm (although generally I started in the dark ~5 AM and was done by 10 or 11). Of course, I'm not an elite runner :) But I don't think he's an elite dog, either!
We do an internal hack day modeled after Atlassian ShipIt (or as they called it and we do 'Fedex Day'). We've only had two since we started (year and a half) but aim to have one per quarter or every other quarter.
In our experience, they were a major boost to morale and some really interesting ideas came out of them, several of which have been implemented fully in our core products.
I'm a big advocate for these. We couldn't really pull off 20% but giving developers opportunities to work on their ideas within the company is really important.
I took machine learning the first time it was offered, and took about half of the PGM class before personal commitments won out temporarily (it was quite demanding, 10-15 hours per week). I re-signed up for PGM so I can give it another go this fall. Quality was really fantastic. Some people complained that ML was not as hard as the Stanford class, but I probably wasn't expecting quite that level in a free, online class, so expectations on my end were more reasonable.
I had a major issue with my Nexus One. I called, they suggested a reset, after the reset didn't fix it they sent me a replacement immediately. The entire process was as painless as can be. The support rep seemed knowledgeable and reasonable. Unlike when I called Dell a few weeks again - nightmare!
I just built something very similar on top of bootstrap for my company two weeks ago. Even some of the methods and naming are the same! Oh well, we needed something slightly more customized and it only took a day or so to write.